Dublin shelve plans for centre of excellence in Rathcoole

DUBLIN GAA yesterday confirmed that the county’s proposed centre of excellence in Rathcoole will be shelved for the time being but the property will not be sold.

The county was responding to comments by GAA director general Páraic Duffy that while the GAA will not be moving its administrative offices to the National Sports Campus in Abbotstown, the association will have a substantial presence there, with Dublin the main beneficiaries of a proposed national centre of excellence.

“The basic thing about Rathcoole,” according to county chair Andy Kettle, “is that while it’s there it is going to be hellish expensive to develop. Abbotstown is ready to walk into and develop. Getting Rathcoole to that stage would cost €4m.”

With the GAA already stretched in terms of capital projects, such as the €20m (£15m) committed to redeveloping Casement Park in Belfast, Dublin would struggle to get any meaningful financial assistance for their project.

“Abbotstown isn’t solely a Dublin initiative,” Kettle continued. “It’s a national centre of excellence but because of the location Dublin would be the biggest user and hopefully down the line we’ll be in a better position to develop Rathcoole.

“We’ll definitely be hanging onto it but realistically it will take anything up to around 10 years before we’re in a position to do anything with it. It was bought for a good price so there’s no point trying to sell it in today’s market.”

Managers Joe Kernan and Jim McGuinness have named strong teams for tomorrow week’s Match for Michaela, which will raise funds for the Michaela Foundation named after the daughter of Tyrone manager Mickey Harte. An Ulster selection will play All-Ireland champions Donegal, who name nine of the team who beat Mayo in last month’s final.

ULSTER(v Donegal): Brendan McVeigh (Down); Ryan McCloskey (Fermanagh), Dan Gordon (Down), Chrissy McKaigue (Derry); Ciaran McKeever (Armagh), Darren Hughes (Monaghan), James Loughrey (Antrim); Seán Cavanagh (Tyrone), David Givney (Cavan); Colm Cavanagh (Tyrone), Mark Poland (Down), Joe McMahon (Tyrone); Martin Penrose (Tyrone), Michael McCann (Antrim), Conor McManus (Monaghan). Subs: Niall Morgan, Conor Gormley (Tyrone), Vinny Corey (Monaghan), Brendan Donaghy (Armagh), Ambrose Rogers (Down), Gearóid McKiernan (Cavan), Brendan Coulter (Down).

DONEGAL: Paul Durcan, Paddy McGrath, Eamonn McGee, Thomas McKinley, Frank McGlynn, Karl Lacey, Declan Walsh, Christy Toye, Neil Gallagher, Daniel McLaughlin, Adrian Hanlon, Ryan Bradley, Patrick McBrearty, Michael Murphy, David Walsh. Subs: Michael Boyle, Antoine McFadden, Peter Withrow, Martin McElhinney, Stephen Griffin, Barry Dunnion, Martin O'Reilly, Gary McFadden, Peter McGee, Mark McHugh.